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Monday, December 2, 2013

Extending manicures with sparkles

Love dark nail polish, but they tend to be higher maintenance (i.e. When they chip, they're more noticeable if left unrepaired, and smooth repairs are difficult).

Here's an example of a recent dark polish. I had on an OPI base coat, two coats of OPI black cherry chutney, and an OPI top coat. The color is really more shimmery dark purple than this picture can show. Such an awesome color for this time of the year!

The tips are wearing off a bit by day 3, and day 4 I had to do something because it was too obvious. I quickly reapplied two coats of the purple on the problem areas. Skip the base coat and don't worry if the edges aren't smooth. Then, put on the glitter, which surprisingly evens out the nail surface (or creates the illusion of evenness)! The one I used here is OPI polka.com, which is a gorgeous magenta and blue sparkly flecks, plus these tiny background glitters of similar color. The result is a gorgeous depth that looks like gems reflected in water. Unfortunately I only have one angle I could show you on camera, but in real life the color and sparkle changes with movement.

And with the glitters on top, the mani lasted another perfect 4 days! I've never had anything last me over a week (I don't know what I do with my hands), so this is pretty awesome.

One thing to note, glitter polishes don't come off easily. You might be better off waiting for it to peel off whole.. If you're lazy like I am. Nail polish remover mainly takes off the color, and then you're left with the sparkly bits with cotton ball bits stuck to them. :-(

Here are the colors used:

What are your favorite ways of extending the life of your mani? Let me know!